Elior returned to the place they were camping, carrying a bunch of dry wood. Shin had already made a fire where his cooking was almost finished. He and the elf were both waiting near the fire as the weather grew quite cold here.
Elior put the dry woods on the already ablaze fire as the flame rose, giving them more of the warmth in the chilly night. They had returned from finishing the dungeon an hour ago, while the temperature dropped in the surrounding area by a considerate level. It was still far from freezing them, but getting a cold was no problem here.
"Are you sure that fire won't call wild animals towards us?" Lyra asked, even though she was sitting quite close to the fire.
"Who cares," Elior said, clicking his tongue. "If they come, we just have to deal with it, better than numbing in the cold."
"Aren't you being dangerously carefree?" The elf could not help but ask.
"Don't worry, there's nothing in the trial that could be of my worry," Elior scoffed.
"Brother Elior, you are almost perfect in every area I have seen," Shin snickered out beside the elf. "But you are not much of a humble guy."
Elior sat down beside Shin on a log as he said, "Well, It's the truth."
"Not humble at all," Shin laughed.
Elior took a piece of rabbit meat from Shin and started to chew. "What's good being humble? It's not like I'm running for president of UN."
"Being humble is good, but sometimes people have the bad idea that you are weak, and try to take advantage of you," Lyra added from the side. She suddenly flustered, noticing the two pairs of eyes on her. She scoffed. "What? I'm just speaking my mind."
Shin was about to joke about that, but noticed the look on Elior which told him not to. Shin thought for a moment to open his lips. "So what are our plans for tomorrow?"
"We will be busier tomorrow," Elior answered. "As our task here is to collect the tokens, we will do that as much as possible."
"But don't we just need 100 tokens to clear out the trial," Shin asked again. "Why do we need more?"
"You, Idiot. Didn't you read the prompt?" Lyra answered for Elior. "The more tokens you have, the higher rating you will get. It was clearly written in the quest prompt."
Shin flustered a little. "So 100 is just the minimum number."
"Yes, collecting a hundred tokens in four days is nothing spectacular," Elior added. "You should aim higher."
"What's the point for me to aim higher?" Shin muttered. "Even if I get more tokens, Sister Elf would take it away from me."
Lyra heard that. She snorted, looking at Shin. "Who told you to use those vulgar lines? You are still in the trial. It is already good enough."
"Well, I'm not complaining," Shin said, looking at the fire. "As if I cared about the rating."
"Oh, you should care about it," Lyra added. "With higher ratings, you can get more rewards at the end of the test."
"Sister Elf, are you trying to make me resent you?"
Lyra went silent. She chewed on the meat—Shin cooked as she turned away from Shin.
"Brother Elior, Is sister Elf blushing? I could not see in the light." Shin snickered, seeing that.
"Shut up," Lyra snorted. "Let's talk about our plans again."
Both of them looked at Elior again.
"As I said, we'll be busy starting tomorrow. So have a proper rest today, we'll start again at dawn."
"Did you find any other dungeons?" Lyra asked suspiciously.
"No," Elior answered. In his previous time, all he had done was grind rats for two days, and hide for the rest of the time. He really did not know any other dungeon here, but he has an idea on how to get tokens easily. "Don't worry. As I said, there's nothing in the trial as of my worry; tokens go to this list as well. It will come our way, eventually."
Shin and Lyra did not understand, but they nodded, taking his words.
"Brother Elior, you said you would help me on how to wield mana."
"Oh that," Elior touched his chin and looked at Shin, then at the elf. "Lyra, why don't you teach him? I'm not much of a teacher."
The elf furrowed her brows, but did not decline. She looked at Shin, who was sitting carefreely on the log, then became alert, noticing her gaze. He was quite enthusiastic about learning mana wielding. Who would not be? Everyone has curiosity towards the guardians.
"Before sensing the mana, you need to straighten your posture," Lyra said to Shin. "Sit straight in cross-legged, and calm your breathing first."
Shin followed as he was told by the Elf. He sat cross-legged, trying his best in breathing exercises.
"When you complete that, close your eyes and try to visualise things. Do that until you find your most peaceful state." Lyra finished saying that. No more explanation.
"That's it? That easy?" Shin could not believe it, frowned.
"Easy?" Lyra snorted. "Try it and you will know how easy it is."
Shin followed, closing his eyes. After thinking about it, he tried to imagine a spacecraft moving at godly speed. The moment he tried it, he knew it was a bad idea. He could not visualise things he did not have a proper understanding of. He tried a few other things like a dragon, a fish in a bowl, a football, but none of them was of much help. He even tried ants, but of no use either.
"Having problems?" Elior said, noticing the uncomfortable Shin.
''Told you," Lyra snickered. "Tell me what you tried to imagine."
Shin told them all his failed visualisations. About the spaceship, the Dragon, and even the ants. He thought it was probably for his poor talent.
"You dimwit idiot," Lyra shouted at Shin, hearing all out. "Are you some sage that would succeed in anything? I told you to find peace, yet you tried to visualise a Dragon. A damning Dragon."
"So what should I do?" Shin asked warily, not minding the yelling. "How did you start your training?"
"Try something easy, like I used to imagine sewing strings when I started. Go like that, easy thing that can make you peaceful."
"Sewing? I'll be bored to death if I imagine that," Shin said as he turned towards Elior. "Brother Elior, what did you imagine to train with?"
"I don't think mine would help you either," Elior said. He thought for a moment about how to help Shin. After thinking for a while, a light bulb lit in his head as he gazed at Shin. "Shin, do you like Air?"
Shined tilted his head, not understanding the question. Well, nobody would know how to answer the question. Elior found he used the wrong words.
"My bad. I worded it wrongly," he said. "How about you try imagining wind? Like mild wind blew leaves away as birds flying are flying on the winds." Elior tried his best to come up with something that was closely related to Shin's power. ''Just give it a try."
Shin nodded. There was no harm in trying as he tried, something clicks inside him as waves of high water came into his mind, and so could he feel an inconsiderate amount of energy in his body. Just like that, Shin's mind hovered into deep meditations.
"That was fast," Lyra said, looking at Shin. She could guess Shin succeeded. "Didn't you say you are bad at teaching?"
"I am," Elior nodded. "It's just, Shin is quite talented." And he knew Shin better than himself.
Saying that, Elior tried his hand at meditation as well. Even though he was good at mana application, nothing would develop if he slacked in training. But before he could even try, he opened his eyes, frowning.
"What is it?" Lyra asked.
"Did I not say tokens would come our way?" Elior laughed as he got up. "It's sooner than I thought."
Lyra frowned. She tried to sense the surroundings and felt a disturbance behind them. "Do you mean other participants are coming this way?" She stood up as well.
"No need, stay here with Shin," Elior said, walking off. "It's just a minor matter."
Lyra did not attempt to go with Elior, but her gaze followed him, moving into the darkness. On the other hand Shin felt nothing, he was meditating with all his mind as the warm feeling spread throughout his body. Mana was quite addicting at first.
After only a couple of minutes, Elior came back in his hand and there were a few tokens of the trial. "These guys are too sloppy. They only had 26 tokens."
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